"Blyton, Enid - Famous Five 03 - Five Run Away Together" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blyton Enid)

"Stay if you like," said George, "but my plan goes on, and you'll find you'll have to go home in the end. Come on, Timothy! Let's go to Jim and see if my boat is ready."
"We'll go with you," said Dick. He was sorry for George. He could see below her defiance, and he knew she was very unhappy, worried about her mother, angry with her father, and upset because she felt the others were staying on because of her, when they could go back home and have a lovely time.
It was not a happy day. George was very stand-offish, and kept on insisting that the others should go back home and leave her. She grew quite angry when they were as insistent that they would not.
"You're spoiling my plan," she said at last. "You might go back, you really might. I tell you, you're spoiling my plan completely."
"Well, what is your plan?" said Julian impatiently. "I
can't help feeling you're just pretending you've got a plan, so that we'll go."
"I'm not pretending," said George, losing her temper. "Do I ever pretend? You know I don't! If I say I've got a plan, I have got a plan. But I'm not giving it away, so it's no good asking me. It's my own secret, private plan."
"Well, I really do think you might tell us," said Dick, quite hurt. "After all, we're your best friends, aren't we? And we're going to stick by you, plan or no planЧyes, even if we spoil your plan, as you say, we shall still stay here with you."
"I shan't let you spoil my plan," said George, her eyes flashing. "You're mean. You're against me, just like the Sticks are."
"Oh, George, don't," said Anne, almost in tears. "Don't let's quarrel. It's bad enough quarrelling with those awful Sticks, without us quarrelling too."
George's temper died down as quickly as it had risen. She looked ashamed.
"Sorry!" she said. "I'm an idiot. I won't quarrel. But I do mean what I say. I shall go on with my plan, and I shan't tell you what it is, because if I do, it will spoil the holidays for you. Please believe me."
"Let's take our dinner out with us again," said Julian, getting up. "We'll all feel better away from this house today. I'll go and tackle the old Stick."
"Dear old Ju, isn't he brave!" said Anne, who would rather have died than go and face Mrs. Stick at that moment.
Mrs. Stick proved very difficult. She felt rather
victorious at the time, and was also very annoyed to find that her beautiful meat-pie and jam-tarts had disappeared. Mr. Stick was in the middle of telling her where they had gone when Julian appeared.
"How you can expect sandwiches for a picnic when you've stolen my meat-pie and jam-tarts, I don't know!" she began, indignantly. "You can have dry bread and jam for your-picnic, and that's all. And what's more, I wouldn't give you that either except that I'm glad to be rid of you."
"Good riddance to bad rubbish," murmured Edgar to himself. He was lying sprawled on the sofa, reading some kind of highly-coloured comic paper.
"If you've anything to say to me, Edgar, come outside and say it," said Julian, dangerously.
"You leave Edgar alone," said Mrs. Stick, at once.
"There's nothing I should like better," said Julian, scornfully. "Who wants to be with him? Cowardly little spotty-face!"
"Now, now, look "ere!" began Mr. Stick, from his corner. . .
"I don't want to look at you," said Julian at once.
"Now, look "ere," said Mr. Stick, angrily, standing up.
"I've told you I don't want to," said Julian. "You're not a pleasant sight."
"Insolence!" said Mrs. Stick, rapidly losing her temper.
"No, not insolenceЧjust the plain truth," said Julian, airily. Mrs. Stick glared at him. Julian defeated her. He had such a ready tongue, and he said everything so politely. The ruder his words were, the more politely he spoke. Mrs. Stick didn't understand people like Julian.
She felt that they were too clever for her. She hated the boy, and banged a saucepan viciously down on the sink, wishing that it was Julian's head under the saucepan instead of the sink.
Stinker jumped up and growled at the sudden noise.
"Hallo, Stinker!" said Julian. "Had a bath yet? Alas, no! Ч as smelly as ever, aren't you?"
"You know that dog's name isn't Stinker," said Mrs. Stick, angrily. "You get out of my kitchen."
"Right!" said Julian. "Pleased to go. Don't bother about the dry bread and jam. I'll manage something a bit better than that."
He went out, whistling. Stinker growled, and Edgar repeated loudly what he had said beIore: "Good riddance to bad rubbish!"
"What did you say?" said Julian, suddenly poking his head in at the kitchen door again. But Edgar did not dare to repeat it, so off went Julian again, whistling merrily, but not feeling nearly as merry as his whistle. He was worried. After all, if Mrs. Stick was going to make meals as difficult as this, life was not going to be very pleasant at Kirrin Cottage.
"Anyone feel inclined to have dry bread and jam for lunch?" inquired Julian, when he returned to the others. "Not? I rather thought so, so I turned down Mrs. Stick's kind offer. I vote we go and buy something decent. That shop in the village has good sausage-rolls."
George was very silent all that day. She was worrying about her mother, the others knew. She was probably thinking about her plan too, they thought, and wondered whatever it could be.
"Shall we go over to Kirrin Island today?" asked Julian, thinking that it would take George's mind off her worries, if they went to her beloved island.
George shook her head.
"NoI she said. "I don't feel like it. The boat's all ready, I knowЧbut I just don't feel like it. You-see, till I know Mother is going to get better, I don't feel I want to be out of reach of the house. If a telephone message came from Father; the Sticks could always send Edgar to look for meЧand if I was on the island, he couldn't find me."
The children messed about that day, doing nothing at all. They went back to tea, and Mrs. Stick provided them with bread and butter and jam, but no cake. The milk was sour too, and everyone-had to have tea without milk, which they all disliked.
As they ate their tea, the children heard Edgar outside the window. He held a tin bowl in his hand, and put it down on the grass outside.
"Your dog's dinner," he yelled.
"He looks like a dog's dinner himself," said Dick, in disgust. "Messy creature!"
That made everyone laugh. "Edgar, the Dog's Dinner!" said Anne. "Any biscuits in that tin on the sideboard, do you think, George?"
George got up to see. Timothy slipped out of doors and went to the dish put down for.him. He sniffed at it. George, coming back from the sideboard, looked out of the window as she passed and saw him. At once the thought of poison came back to her mind and she yelled to Timothy, making the others jump out of their skins.
TIM! TIM! Don't touch it!"
Timothy wagged his tail as if to say he didn't mean to touch it, anyway. George rushed out of doors, and picked up the mess of raw meat. She sniffed at it.
"You haven't touched it, have you, Timothy?" she said, anxiously.
Dick leaned out of the window.
. "No, he didn't eat any. I watched him. He sniffed all round and about it, but he wouldn't touch it. I bet it's been dosed with rat-poison or something."